1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to surface conditioning and, in particular, to an apparatus for abrading a surface.
2. Description of Related Art
Indoor surfaces, such as floors inside a building, including wood, concrete or granite floors, and outdoor surfaces, such as decks and walkways, including wood, concrete or granite outdoor surfaces, often require renovation.
Renovating a wooden floor often involves sanding the wooden floor, and renovating a concrete or granite surface often involves grinding the surface.
Conventional schemes for sanding and grinding surfaces often require the use of multiple machines due to the limitations of each conventional machine.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,494,772 issued to Barnes et al. discloses a machine that is useable to sand hardwood floors and includes two covers mounted above a main housing. The added height of the two covers impedes the ability of the machine of Barnes et al. to sand a hardwood floor in height-restricted spaces, including beneath an overhanging fixture such as a cabinet or heating unit. Overhanging fixtures in buildings typically overhang between four and six inches above the floor surface. Such overhanging fixtures are often already in place when sanding or grinding is required, such as in the case of a renovation. If the sanding or grinding machine cannot fit under an overhanging fixture, an additional machine such as an edge sander must be used to complete the sanding or grinding task. Thus, there is an unadressed need in the art for a single machine that can sand and grind an entire surface, including in height restricted spaces.